Data storage system for analysis of data across heterogeneous information management systems

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for generating customized reports from data storage databases and other information management system databases. The methods include normalizing queried information from different types of information management system databases to enable system-wide report generation. Other implementations are disclosed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/777,140, filed Feb. 26, 2013, which claims priority to andthe benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/745,034, filed Dec.21, 2012, each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference inits entirety.

BACKGROUND

Information management systems protect and manage various types of dataand metadata used by networked computing devices. The various types ofdata and metadata may include file server data, mail server data,network identities of the computing devices, and the status of databackup jobs. The various types of data and metadata are typically storedin data structures, e.g., databases. While databases and other datastructures may provide excellent features for organizing information,the inherent format of the data, e.g., rows and columns, is notuser-friendly. In other words, looking at tens, hundreds, or thousandsof rows and columns of data is non-intuitive and is a challenging wayfor a user to perform an at-a-glance analysis of the contents of thedatabase. As a result, various techniques have been developed forgraphically representing the contents of information management systemdatabases and other data structures. However, the commonly usedtechniques suffer from various shortcomings.

One example technique for graphically representing database contentsincludes using fixed charts or graphs. Fixed charts or graphs are thosewhich are configured to graphically represent the exact same contentover time. Fixed charts or graphs may consume a considerable amount ofeffort to initially format as desired, but may provide visuallyappealing and understandable representations of database contents. Thecomplexity of the fixed charts or graphs may require an informationtechnology (IT) administrator to write code in a database-friendlylanguage to automate the process of database content extraction andgraphing. Because of the time, cost, and complexity associated withchanging fixed charts or graphs, making changes to the fixed charts orgraphs can be inconvenient to a person without database programmingskills.

Other shortcomings associated with graphically representing the contentsof information management system databases includes an inability torepresent information from databases that have different formats. Forexample, some organizations use one type or model of database ordatabase management system for one part of a computing environment butuse another type or model of database or database management system foranother part of the computing environment. As a result, the databasesoperated by an organization may have incompatible formatting. Theincompatible formatting makes it difficult to graphically representinformation from both or all types or models of databases in a singlegraphical representation. For example, an organization may use arelational database model, e.g., a SQL database, to manage theoperations of a first set of networked computing devices, but theorganization may use an object-oriented database model, e.g., an Oracledatabase, to manage the operations of a second set of network computingdevices. While the contents of the SQL database and the Oracle databasemay be similar, the organization of information in each type of databaseis different, thereby making joint graphical representation difficult.

The need exists for systems and methods that overcome the aboveproblems, as well as systems and methods that provide additionalbenefits. Overall, the examples herein of some prior or related systemsand methods and their associated limitations are intended to beillustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of existing or priorsystems and methods will become apparent to those of skill in the artupon reading the following Detailed Description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a suitableinformation management environment in which aspects of the inventivesystem may operate.

FIG. 2 illustrates examples of production and non-production data thatmay be processed by the information management environment of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating one example of a hierarchicalarrangement of resources for the information management system of FIG.1, including information management cells.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of resources formingan information management cell.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a system for generating databasereports.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart representation of a process of generatingdatabase reports.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a graphical user interface forediting a database report.

FIG. 8 is a screen shot of a graphical user interface for editing adatabase report.

FIG. 9 is a screen shot of another view of the graphical user interfacefor editing a database report.

FIG. 10 is a screen shot of another view of the graphical user interfacefor editing a database report.

FIG. 11 is a screen shot of a graphical user interface for editing adatabase report.

FIG. 12 is a screen shot of a graphical representation of part of aninformation management database.

FIG. 13 is a screen shot illustrating an interface for selecting frommultiple custom reports.

FIG. 14 is a screen shot of a custom report generated from the graphicaluser interfaces of FIGS. 8-11.

FIG. 15 is a screen shot illustrating a system for displaying multiplecustom reports.

FIG. 16 is a screen shot illustrating a dialog box for adding customreports to the system of FIG. 15.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart representation of a process for generatinggraphical reports from an information management database.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The techniques disclosed in this document are useful, in one aspect, insolving the above-discussed problems.

The headings provided herein are for convenience only and do notnecessarily affect the scope or meaning of the disclosure.

Overview

Disclosed are systems and methods for creating custom reports fromcontent of one or more storage manager databases or other informationmanagement system databases. Information management systems havingseveral different types of databases are herein identified asheterogeneous systems. Aspects of the system provide a single report,chart, or graph for an entire information management system, bytranslating or converting content from different types of databases intoa uniform format.

The system may receive input from a user, via a graphical user interface(GUI), that identifies which content of which databases to query. Inparticular, the GUI may populate one or more drop-down menus or checkbox menus with table names and columns names of the databases. The usermay then select which sets of information to query the databases for,without requiring the user to be able to program in a database language.The system may next determine the type of each database to be queriedand may employ type-specific queries for each database query, based onthe determination of the type. The system may then normalize all queryresults to a single database type or format, e.g., relational, so thatthe result may be stored and sorted by an interim database, such as anin-memory database. Then the system graphically represents the queriedcontent according to the input selections made by the user.Advantageously, the disclosed techniques enable a system to bridgebetween different database types to generate system-wide graphs orcharts. Furthermore, because the input from the user is received viamenus in a GUI, the can generate the reports without databaseprogramming skills.

FIGS. 1-4 disclose foundational components and elements of aninformation management system and information management cell to which acustomer's computing system may be upgraded. FIGS. 5-6 illustratesystems and methods of generating reports for heterogeneous informationmanagement systems. FIGS. 7-17 illustrate example GUIs, reports andmethods of operating the GUIs to generate customized reports forinformation management systems.

Various examples of the systems and methods will now be described. Thefollowing description provides specific details for a thoroughunderstanding and enabling description of these examples. One skilled inthe relevant art will understand, however, that the invention may bepracticed without many of these details. Likewise, one skilled in therelevant art will also understand that the invention may include manyother obvious features not described in detail herein. Additionally,some well-known structures or functions may not be shown or described indetail below, so as to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the relevantdescription.

The terminology used below is to be interpreted in its broadestreasonable manner, even though it is being used in conjunction with adetailed description of certain specific examples of the invention.Indeed, certain terms may even be emphasized below; however, anyterminology intended to be interpreted in any restricted manner will beovertly and specifically defined as such in this Detailed Descriptionsection.

Information Management Environment

Aspects of the technologies described herein may be practiced in aninformation management environment 100, which will now be describedwhile referencing FIG. 1. Aspects of the information managementenvironment 100 may be used to generate custom reports from the contentof one or more information management databases. As shown in FIG. 1, theenvironment 100 includes multiple computing devices that executenumerous software applications to facilitate the operations of anorganization (or multiple affiliated organizations), such as ahousehold, corporation or other business entity, a non-profitorganization, an educational institution, or a governmental agency. Thecomputing devices may include one or more: servers 105 (such as mailservers, file servers, database servers, print servers, and webservers), personal computers 110, workstations 115, or other types offixed computing systems such as mainframe computers and minicomputers(not shown). The servers 105 may include network-attached storage (NAS)filers.

The environment 100 may include virtualized computing resources, such asa virtual machine 120 provided to the organization by a third-partycloud service vendor or a virtual machine 125 running on a virtualmachine host 130 operated by the organization. For example, theorganization may use one virtual machine 125A as a database server andanother virtual machine 125B as a mail server. The environment 100 mayalso include mobile or portable computing devices, such as laptops 135,tablet computers 140, personal data assistants 145, mobile phones 152(such as smartphones), and other mobile or portable computing devicessuch as embedded computers, set top boxes, vehicle-mounted devices,wearable computers, etc.

Of course, other types of computing devices may form part of theenvironment 100. As part of their function, each of these computingdevices creates, accesses, modifies, writes, and otherwise usesproduction copies of data and metadata that are typically stored in apersistent storage medium having fast I/O times. For example, eachcomputing device may regularly access and modify data files and metadatastored on semiconductor memory, a local disk drive or a network-attachedstorage device. Each of these computing devices may access data andmetadata via a file system supported by an operating system of thecomputing device.

The environment 100 may also include hosted services 122 that providevarious online services to the organization or its constituent members(e.g., the organization's departments, employees, independentcontractors, etc.) such as social networking services (e.g., Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest), hosted email services (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo Mail,Hotmail), or hosted productivity applications or other hostedapplications (e.g., Microsoft Office 365, Google Docs, Salesforce.com).Hosted services may include software-as-a-service (SaaS),platform-as-a-service (PaaS), application service providers (ASPs),cloud services, and all manner of delivering computing or functionalityvia a network. As it provides services to users, each hosted service maygenerate additional “hosted data and metadata” that is associated witheach user. For example, Facebook may generate and store photos, wallposts, notes, videos, and other content that are associated with aparticular Facebook user's account.

The organization directly or indirectly employs an informationmanagement system 150 to protect and manage the data and metadata usedby the various computing devices in the environment 100 and the data andmetadata that is maintained by hosted services on behalf of usersassociated with the organization. One example of an informationmanagement system is the CommVault Simpana system, available fromCommVault Systems, Inc. of Oceanport, N.J. The information managementsystem creates and manages non-production copies of the data andmetadata to meet information management goals, such as: permitting theorganization to restore data, metadata or both data and metadata if anoriginal copy of the data/metadata is lost (e.g., by deletion,corruption, or disaster, or because of a service interruption by ahosted service); allowing data to be recovered from a previous time;complying with regulatory data retention and electronic discovery(“e-discovery”) requirements; reducing the amount of data storage mediaused; facilitating data organization and search; improving user accessto data files across multiple computing devices and/or hosted services;and implementing information lifecycle management (“ILM”) or other dataretention policies for the organization. The information managementsystem 150 may create the additional non-production copies of the dataand metadata on any suitable non-production storage medium such asmagnetic disks 155, magnetic tapes 160, other storage media 165 such assolid-state storage devices or optical disks, or on cloud data storagesites 170 (e.g. those operated by third-party vendors). Further detailson the information management system may be found in the assignee's U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/751,850, filed Mar. 31, 2010 entitledDATA OBJECT STORE AND SERVER FOR A CLOUD STORAGE ENVIRONMENT, INCLUDINGDATA DEDUPLICATION AND DATA MANAGEMENT ACROSS MULTIPLE CLOUD STORAGESITES, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,285,681, which is hereby incorporated hereinby reference in its entirety.

FIG. 2 helps illustrates some differences between “production copies” ofdata and metadata and “non-production copies” of data and metadata inthe data management environment 100. As shown, each computing device 205in the environment 100 has at least one operating system 210 installedand one or more applications 215A-D, such as mail server applications,file server applications, mail client applications, databaseapplications, word processing applications, spreadsheet applications,presentation applications, browser applications, mobile applications,entertainment applications, and so on. Each application can access andmodify various production copies of files stored in a production datastorage medium 218, which may be a network attached storage filer orform part of a Hadoop distributed file system, Open VMS file system, orother type of distributed file system, simply by making conventionalfile system calls via the operating system 210, without needing theinformation management system 150 to intervene on behalf of theoperating system or application. The production copies of files mayinclude structured data (e.g., database files), unstructured data (e.g.,documents), and/or semi-structured data, and thus may include one ormore documents 220A-B, spreadsheets 225, presentation documents 230,video files 232, image files 234, email mailboxes 235, html/xml or othertypes of markup language files 222, and/or databases 240. The operatingsystem 210 may also access and modify production copies of files andother data, such as files in a system volume and/or boot volume. Thehosted data and metadata used by a hosted service are also “productioncopies” of data and metadata since the hosted service accesses andmodifies the user's data and metadata as part of its services.Production copies of data may include not only files, but also subsetsof files, each of which a related application 215 or the operatingsystem 210 treats as an independent functional unit, but which is notseparately addressed in the associated file system. For example, asingle email mailbox 235 may include multiple email messages 245A-C,email headers, and attachments. As another example, a single database240 may include multiple tables 255A-C. As used herein, a “data object”refers to both (1) any file that is currently or previously addressableby a file system and (2) a functional subset of such a file that has aparticular function for a related application 215A-D or the operatingsystem 210. Each data object may be further decomposed into one or moredata blocks each of which is a collection of data bits within the dataobject that may not have any particular function for a relatedapplication or the operating system. In addition to data objects, theoperating system 210 and applications 215A-D may also access and modifyproduction copies of metadata, such as boot sectors, partition layouts,file or data object metadata (e.g., file name, file size,creation/modification/access timestamps, file location within a filefolder directory structure, user permissions, owners, groups, accesscontrol lists (“ACLs”)), and system metadata (e.g., registryinformation). In addition to metadata generated by or related to filesystems and operating systems, some applications maintain indices ofproduction metadata for data objects, e.g., metadata associated withindividual email messages. Thus, as shown in FIG. 2, each data objectmay be associated with a production copy of object metadata(“Meta1-11”), which may be file system metadata and/orapplication-specific metadata.

The information management system 150 accesses or receives copies of thevarious production copies of data objects and metadata, and via aninformation management operation (such as a backup operation, archiveoperation, or snapshot operation), creates non-production copies ofthese data objects and metadata, often stored in one or morenon-production storage mediums 265 different than the production storagemedium 218 where the production copies of the data objects and metadatareside. A non-production copy of a data object represents the productiondata object and its associated metadata at a particular point in time(non-production objects 260A-C). Since a production copy of a dataobject or metadata changes over time as it is modified by an application215, hosted service 122, or the operating system 210, the informationmanagement system 150 may create and manage multiple non-productioncopies of a particular data object or metadata, each representing thestate of the production data object or metadata at a particular point intime. Moreover, since a production copy of a data object may eventuallybe deleted from the production data storage medium and the file systemfrom which it originated, the information management system may continueto manage point-in-time representations of that data object, even thougha production copy of the data object itself no longer exists.

For virtualized computing devices, such as virtual machines, theoperating system 210 and applications 215A-D may be running on top ofvirtualization software, and the production data storage medium 218 maybe a virtual disk created on a physical medium such as a physical disk.The information management system may create non-production copies ofthe discrete data objects stored in a virtual disk file (e.g.,documents, email mailboxes, and spreadsheets) and/or non-productioncopies of the entire virtual disk file itself (e.g., a non-productioncopy of an entire .vmdk file).

Each non-production object 260A-C may contain copies of or otherwiserepresent more than one production data object. For example,non-production object 260A represents three separate production dataobjects 255C, 230 and 245C (represented as 245C′, 230′ and 245′,respectively). Moreover, as indicated by the prime mark (′), anon-production object may store a representation of a production dataobject or metadata differently than the original format of the dataobject or metadata, e.g., in a compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, orotherwise optimized format. Although FIG. 2 shows that a singleproduction data object (e.g., 255C), and its associated data objectmetadata (e.g., Meta11) are represented by the contents of only a singlenon-production object (e.g., 260A), the entire contents of a singleproduction data object and/or its metadata at a particular point in timemay instead span across numerous non-production objects. Also a singlenon-production object 260 may contain copies of or otherwise representproduction data objects that originated from different computingdevices.

Non-production copies include backup copies, archive copies, andsnapshot copies. Backup copies are generally used for shorter-term dataprotection and restoration purposes and may be in a native applicationformat or in a non-native format (e.g., compressed, encrypted,deduplicated, and/or otherwise modified from the original applicationformat). Archive copies are generally used for long-term data storagepurposes and may be compressed, encrypted, deduplicated and/or otherwisemodified from the original application format. In some examples, when anarchive copy of a data object is made, a logical reference or stub maybe used to replace the production copy of the data object in theproduction storage medium 218. In such examples, the stub may point toor otherwise reference the archive copy of the data object stored in thenon-production storage medium so that the information management systemcan retrieve the archive copy if needed. The stub may also include somemetadata associated with the data object, so that a file system and/orapplication can provide some information about the data object and/or alimited-functionality version (e.g., a preview) of the data object. Asnapshot copy represents a data object at a particular point in time. Asnapshot copy can be made quickly and without significantly impactingproduction computing resources because large amounts of data need not becopied or moved. A snapshot copy may include a set of pointers derivedfrom the file system or an application, where each pointer points to arespective stored data block, so collectively, the set of pointersreflect the storage location and state of the data object at aparticular point in time when the snapshot copy was created. In“copy-on-write”, if a block of data is to be deleted or changed, thesnapshot process writes the block to a particular data storage location,and the pointer for that block is now directed to that particularlocation. The set of pointers and/or the set of blocks pointed to by asnapshot may be stored within the production data storage medium 218.

Non-production copies of a data object or metadata may be distinguishedfrom a production copy of a data object or metadata in several ways.First, a non-production copy of a data object is created to meet thedifferent information management goals described above and is notdirectly used or modified by applications 215A-D, hosted services 122,or the operating system 210. Second, a non-production copy of a dataobject is stored as one or more non-production objects 260 that may havea format different from the native application format of the productioncopy of the data object, and thus often cannot be directly used by thenative application or a hosted service 122 without first being modified.Third, non-production objects are often stored on a non-productionstorage medium 265 that is inaccessible to the applications 215A-Drunning on computing devices and hosted services 122. Also, somenon-production copies may be “offline copies,” in that they are notreadily available (e.g. not mounted tape or disk.) Offline copiesinclude copies of data that the information management system can accesswithout any human intervention (e.g. tapes within an automated tapelibrary, but not yet mounted in a drive), and copies that theinformation management system 150 can access only with at least somehuman intervention (e.g. tapes located at an offsite storage site).

The information management system 150 also generates informationmanagement data 275, such as indexing information, that permit theinformation management system to perform its various informationmanagement tasks. As shown in FIG. 2, a computing device 205 may includeone or more data management agents 280 that provide client-sidefunctions for the information management system.

Information Management System

FIG. 3 shows a hierarchical arrangement of resources that may form aninformation management system 150. As shown, the information managementsystem 150 includes multiple information management cells 350 arrangedin a hierarchy, with some information management cells (e.g., 350D-E)subordinate to other information management cells (e.g., 350B). A globalstorage manager 305, which may form part of a global information cell350 x, manages the overall hierarchy of information management cells byreceiving reports from the various subordinate information managementcells related to the operation of the cells, determining globalinformation management policies in light of received reports, andpushing information management policies towards subordinate cells forimplementation. The global storage manager may also maintain anddisseminate, to the various cells, system-wide information managementdata. A superior information management cell (e.g., 350B), may performsimilar tasks for its subordinate cells (e.g., 350D-E) and/or otherwiseact as an intermediary between the subordinate cells and the globalstorage manager 305.

Information Management Cell

FIG. 4 shows an arrangement of resources that may be used to build anddisplay customizable database reports and that may form an informationmanagement cell 350. As shown, the information management cell includesa storage manager 402, one or more media agents 410A-M, one or morenon-production storage mediums 155-170, one or more computing devices205A-N, and one or more production data storage mediums 218A-N. Outsideof the information management cell are hosted services 122, which mayinteract with media agents 410 and its components, as described furtherherein. In some examples, all or a portion of an information managementcell may be implemented as an object store, as described in assignee'sU.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/751,850 (introduced above).

The storage manager 402 may be a software module or other applicationthat coordinates and controls information management operationsperformed by one or more information management cells 350 to protect andcontrol copies of non-production data objects and metadata. As shown bythe dashed lines 416 and 422, the storage manager may communicate withsome or all elements of the information management cell 350, such as themedia agents 410 and computing devices 205, to initiate and managebackup operations, snapshot operations, archive operations, datareplication operations, data migrations, data distributions, datarecovery, and other information management operations. The storagemanager may control additional information management operationsincluding ILM, deduplication, content indexing, data classification,data mining or searching, e-discovery management, collaborativesearching, encryption, and compression. Alternatively or additionally, astorage manager may control the creation and management of disasterrecovery copies, which are often created as secondary, high-availabilitydisk copies, using auxiliary copy or replication technologies.

The storage manager 402 may include a jobs agent 455, a management agent450, a network agent 445, and an interface agent 460, all of which maybe implemented as interconnected software modules or applicationprograms. The jobs agent 455 monitors the status of informationmanagement operations previously performed, currently being performed,or scheduled to be performed by the information management cell 350. Themanagement agent 450 provides an interface that allows variousmanagement agents 450 in multiple information management cells 350 (orin a global storage manager 305) to communicate with one another. Thisallows each information management cell 350 to exchange statusinformation, routing information, capacity and utilization information,and information management operation instructions or policies with othercells. In general, the network agent 445 provides the storage manager402 with the ability to communicate with other components within theinformation management cell and the larger information managementsystem, e.g., via proprietary or non-proprietary network protocols andapplication programming interfaces (“APIs”) (including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP,REST, virtualization software APIs, cloud service provider APIs, hostedservice provider APIs). The interface agent 460 includes informationprocessing and display software, such as a graphical user interface(“GUI”), an API, or other interactive interface through which users andsystem processes can retrieve information about the status ofinformation management operations or issue instructions to theinformation management cell and its constituent components. The storagemanager 402 may also track information that permits it to select,designate, or otherwise identify content indices, deduplicationdatabases, or similar databases within its information management cell(or another cell) to be searched in response to certain queries.

The storage manager 402 may also maintain information management data,such as a database 465 of management data and policies. The database 465may include a management index that stores logical associations betweencomponents of the system, user preferences, user profiles (that amongother things, map particular information management users to computingdevices or hosted services), management tasks, or other useful data. Thedatabase 465 may also include various “information management policies,”which are generally data structures or other information sources thateach include a set of criteria and rules associated with performing aninformation management operation. The criteria may be used to determinewhich rules apply to a particular data object, system component, orinformation management operation, an may include:

-   -   frequency with which a production or non-production copy of a        data object or metadata has been or is predicted to be used,        accessed, or modified;    -   access control lists or other security information;    -   the sensitivity (e.g., confidentiality) of a data object as        determined by its content and/or metadata;    -   time-related factors;    -   deduplication information;    -   the computing device, hosted service, computing process, or user        that created, modified, or accessed a production copy of a data        object; and    -   an estimated or historic usage or cost associated with different        components.        The rules may specify, among other things:    -   a schedule for performing information management operations,    -   a location (or a class or quality of storage media) for storing        a non-production copy,    -   preferences regarding the encryption, compression, or        deduplication of a non-production copy,    -   resource allocation between different computing devices or other        system components (e.g., bandwidth, storage capacity),    -   whether and how to synchronize or otherwise distribute files or        other data objects across multiple computing devices or hosted        services,    -   network pathways and components to utilize (e.g., to transfer        data) during an information management operation, and    -   retention policies (e.g., the length of time a non-production        copy should be retained in a particular class of storage media).

As noted above, each computing device 205 may include one or more datamanagement agents 280. Each data management agent 280 is a softwaremodule or component that helps govern communications with other systemcomponents. For example, the data management agent receives commandsfrom the storage manager 402 and sends to and receives from media agents410 copies of data objects, metadata, and other payload (as indicated bythe heavy arrows). Each data management agent accesses data and/ormetadata stored in a production data storage medium 218 and arranges orpacks the data and metadata in a certain format (e.g., backup or archiveformat) before it is transferred to another component. Each datamanagement agent can also restore a production copy of a data object ormetadata in a production data storage medium 218 from a non-productioncopy. A data management agent may perform some functions provided by amedia agent, which are described further herein, such as compression,encryption, or deduplication. Each data management agent may bespecialized for a particular application (e.g. a specified datamanagement agent customized to handle data generated or used by Exchangeby Microsoft Corp.). Alternatively or additionally, a more generic datamanagement agent may handle data generated or used by two or moreapplications.

Each computing device 205 may also include a data distribution and livebrowsing client module 405 (herein “distribution client module”). Thedistribution client module 405 is responsible for, inter alia,associating mobile devices and/or hosted service accounts with users ofthe information management system, setting information managementpolicies for mobile and other computing devices, pushing data objects toa distribution module for distribution to other computing devices,providing unified access to a user's data via an interface, andproviding live browsing features. The various functions of thedistribution client module are described in greater detail herein.

A media agent 410, which may be implemented as a software module,conveys data, as directed by the storage manager 402, between acomputing device 205 (or hosted service 122) and one or morenon-production storage mediums 155-170. Each media agent 410 may controlone or more intermediary storage devices 418, such as a cloud server ora tape or magnetic disk library management system, to read, write, orotherwise manipulate data stored in a non-production storage medium155-170. Each media agent 410 may be considered to be “associated with”a storage device and its related non-production storage media if thatmedia agent is capable of routing data to and storing data in thestorage media managed by the particular storage device. A media agentmay communicate with computing devices 205, hosted services 122, storagedevices 418A-D, and the storage manager 402 via any suitablecommunications path, including SCSI, a Storage Area Network (“SAN”), aFibre Channel communications link, or a wired, wireless, or partiallywired/wireless computer or telecommunications network, including theInternet.

To perform its functions, the media agent 410 may include a media filesystem module 425, a data classification module 435, a content indexingmodule 420, a deduplication module 430, an encryption module 475, acompression module 485, a network module 415, a distribution module 490,and a media agent database 440. The media file system module 425 isresponsible for reading, writing, archiving, copying, migrating,restoring, accessing, moving, sparsifying, deleting, sanitizing,destroying, or otherwise performing file system operations on variousnon-production storage devices of disparate types. The media file systemmodule may also instruct the storage device to use a robotic arm orother retrieval means to load or eject certain storage media such as atape.

The network module 415 permits the media agent to communicate with othercomponents within the system and hosted services 122 via one or moreproprietary and/or non-proprietary network protocols or APIs (includingcloud service provider APIs, virtual machine management APIs, and hostedservice provider APIs). The deduplication module 430 performsdeduplication of data objects and/or data blocks to reduce dataredundancy in the cell. The deduplication module may generate and storedata structures to manage deduplicated data objects, such asdeduplication tables, in the media agent database 440. The encryptionmodule 475 performs encryption of data objects, data blocks, ornon-production objects to ensure data security in the cell. Thecompression module 485 performs compression of data objects, datablocks, or non-production objects to reduce the data capacity needed inthe cell.

The content indexing module 420 analyzes the contents of productioncopies or non-production copies of data objects and/or their associatedmetadata and catalogues the results of this analysis, along with thestorage locations of (or references to) the production or non-productioncopies, in a content index stored within a media agent database 440. Theresults may also be stored elsewhere in the system, e.g., in the storagemanager 402, along with a non-production copy of the data objects,and/or an index cache. Such index data provides the media agent 410 oranother device with an efficient mechanism for locating productioncopies and/or non-production copies of data objects that matchparticular criteria. The index data or other analyses of data objects ormetadata may also be used by the data classification module 435 toassociate data objects with classification identifiers (such asclassification tags) in the media agent database 440 (or other indices)to facilitate information management policies and searches of storeddata objects.

The distribution module 490 may be a set of instructions thatcoordinates the distribution of data objects and indices of dataobjects. The distribution may occur from one computing device 205 toanother computing device 205 and/or from hosted services 122 tocomputing devices 205. As a first example, the distribution module maycollect and manage data and metadata from hosted services 122 or mobiledevices 205. As another example, the distribution module may synchronizedata files or other data objects that are modified on one computingdevice so that the same modified files or objects are available onanother computing device. As yet another example, the distributionmodule may distribute indices of data objects that originated frommultiple computing devices and/or hosted services, so a user can accessall of their data objects through a unified user interface or a nativeapplication on their computing device. The distribution module may alsoinitiate “live browse” sessions to permit communications betweendifferent computing devices so that the devices can interchange data andmetadata or so the devices can provide computing resources, such asapplications, to each other. The functions performed by the distributionmodule are described in greater detail herein.

Heterogeneous Database Report Generation

In its native format, a database does not provide a user-friendlyrepresentation of its contents. A database is a structured collection ofdata that may comprise columns and rows of data grouped into tables, ormay be organized as many other types of data structures. Organizationsuse a database to bring independent sources of data together and tostore them electronically. The database typically groups the independentsources of data with a logical association, e.g., a key, to enable theorganizations to selectively and quickly retrieve portions of the storeddata. The database enables retrieval of portions of the stored databased on the type, use, or association of the data. As an example, inFIG. 4, the database 465 groups information about non-production storagedevices 155-170 together with information about client devices 205 toenable a user to retrieve information about secondary copies of datathat are presently stored on non-production storage devices 155-170 forthe client devices 205. Even though databases are useful for storing andretrieving information, rows and columns of data are not a user-friendlyor analysis-friendly format for information.

IT administrators can query a database and program a graphicalrepresentation of the contents of a single database, but, as discussedin the Background, creating a graphical representation of differenttypes or models of databases can be difficult. Databases arefunctionally grouped into types or models. A database model is generallya theoretical foundation of a database and fundamentally determines themanner in which data can be stored, organized, and manipulated in thedatabase system. The database model (or type) defines the infrastructureoffered by a particular database system. Examples of models of databasesor database management systems include extensive markup language (XML)databases, networked databases, distributed databases, hierarchicaldatabases, relational databases, document-oriented databases, andobject-oriented databases. Because each type of database model hasparticular strengths, an organization may employ multiple types ofdatabases within a single networked computing system, such as within theinformation management system 150 (shown in FIG. 3). In particular, anorganization may employ a first type of database in a first informationmanagement cell and may employ a second type of database in a secondinformation management cell. It can therefore be challenging for theorganization to generate reports for the entire networked computingsystem, i.e., both the first and second information management cells,because a common query to both of the different types of databases willreturn different or incompatible query results. Furthermore, both typesof the databases may not even recognize a common query command. Thefollowing systems and methods provide solutions to the problem ofgenerating reports from heterogeneous information management systemdatabases, i.e., databases of different types (as well as providingother benefits).

FIG. 5 illustrates a computing environment 500 having a database reportgeneration agent that is executable by one or more heterogeneousinformation management cells. As used herein, “heterogeneous informationmanagement cells” include information management cells having differingtypes of database management systems, e.g., object-oriented,document-oriented, or relational databases. The database reportgeneration agent enables an information management cell to acquire andnormalize database content to display graphical representations of thecontent. The database content may be from storage manager databases fromtwo or more heterogeneous information management cells. Advantageously,the database report generation agent enables a user to concurrentlyoperate different types of database management systems for a singleorganization and still generate system-wide graphical representations ofthe contents of the databases. Without the database report generationagent, an organization may be limited to settling for one report foreach type of database or be limited to one report for each informationmanagement cell.

The computing environment 500 includes information management cells 350,information management cells 505, and a database report generation agent510 (“report agent 510”). The information management cells 350 arecommunicatively coupled, i.e. connected, to the information managementcells 505 via a network connection 515. The network connection 515 maybe a LAN, WAN, or other type of network connection. The informationmanagement cells 350 may include storage manager databases of a firsttype of database management system. The information management cells 505may include storage manager databases of a second type of databasemanagement system that is different from the first type of databasemanagement system. Accordingly, the computing environment 500 mayinclude heterogeneous information management cells 350 and 505 becausethe storage manager databases are of different types of databasemanagement systems.

The information management cells 350 can be the information managementcells 350 from the information management system 150 that is illustratedin FIG. 3. The information management cells 350 may include two or moreinformation management cells 350A-N. Each of the information managementcells 350 include corresponding storage managers 402 (inclusive ofstorage managers 402A-N). As discussed above in connection with FIG. 4,the storage managers 402 may each include a database 465 having data andmetadata associated with one or more information management cells 350.According to one implementation, the storage managers 402A-N create andmaintain a uniform type of database management systems for each of thedatabases 465A-N. For example, each database 465A-N is implemented witha relational database management system such as structured querylanguage (SQL) database. More specifically, the databases 465 may beimplemented with Microsoft SQL (MS SQL) or MySQL database managementsystems.

The information management cells 505 are communicatively coupled orconnected to the information management cells 350 but may includestorage managers 520 that operate differently than storage managers 402and that are configured differently than storage managers 402. Inparticular, the storage managers 520 may execute information managementsoftware products that are different than the information managementsoftware products used to implement the storage managers 402, e.g., aCommVault® software product. For example, the storage managers 520 mayinstead execute information management software products from othermanufacturers, such as Networker® software by EMC2®, NetBackup™ softwareby Symantec™, Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack® software by IBM®, and thelike.

Each of the storage managers 520A-M may execute a network module 525A-Mand maintain a database 530A-M. The network module 525A enables thestorage manager 520A to communicate with other information managementcells 505M, 350A-N and with other storage managers 520M and 402A-N. Insome implementations, the network module 525A may include instructionsthat enable the storage manager 520A to utilize one or morecommunications protocols such as TCP/IP, or the like.

The databases 530 may enable the storage managers 520 to manage andmaintain data and metadata associated with computing devices networkedwithin the information management cells 505. In some implementations,the databases 530 are implemented in types of database managementsystems that are different than the type of database management systemused for the databases 465. For example, if the databases 465 areimplemented in relational database management systems, then thedatabases 530 may be implemented by one or more non-relational, i.e.,non-SQL, types of database management systems. Examples ofnon-relational database management systems include MongoDB, Oracle,NoSQL, BaseX, Clusterpoint, eXist, Jackrabbit, OrientDB, Sedna,SimpleDB, or the like. Table 1, illustrated below, includes severalcommonly used examples of databases management systems with thecorresponding

TABLE 1 Name Type or Description MySQL Relational Database ManagementSystem MS SQL Relational Database Management System IMS HierarchicalDatabase Management System Honeywell IDS Network Database ManagementSystem TurboIMAGE Network Database Management System MongoDBDocument-oriented Database Management System Oracle Object-relationalDatabase Management System eXist XML Database Management System OrientDBDocument-based Database Management System w/SQL support SimpleDBDistributed Database Management System Sedna XML Database ManagementSystemtypes or descriptions of the databases. As shown, various vendors andvarious types of database management systems are available.

As discussed above, each type of database management system organizesstored information differently than each other type. As result, queriesto each of the different types produce results with different content.For example, a query to a relational database, e.g., to a MySQLdatabase, may return a field, i.e., an item of data. By contrast, aquery to a document-oriented database, e.g., MongoDB, may return anobject having a piece of data and instructions for what to do with thedata. The object returned by the MongoDB may be used to retrieve itsassociated data (which may be similar to the field returned by therelational database query). However, some translation and additionalprocessing is typically needed in order to retrieve similar informationfrom the different types of database management systems.

The storage manager 402A may execute the report agent 510 to acquirecontent from multiple databases, to merge the acquired content, and tographically display the content in a single graph or chart. The reportagent 510 is special in that it enables the storage manager 402A togenerate a report based on the content of databases from more than oneinformation management cell. The report agent 510 is further special inthat it also enables the storage manager 402A to generate a report basedon the content of heterogeneous databases, i.e., information managementsystem databases of different types. The report agent 510 may use anacquisition module 535, an interim database 540, and a report userinterface (UI) module 545 to perform its functions.

The acquisition module 535 enables the storage manager 402A to acquireinformation from two or more databases 465 and 530. As an illustrativeexample, the storage manager 402A executes the acquisition module 535 toacquire portions of the content of the database 530M. The acquisitionmodule 535 receives network address information, databaseidentification, and security credentials from a user in order to accessthe database 530M. In some implementations, network address information,database identification, security credentials are received from the userthrough report user interface module 545. The acquisition module 535 mayuse the network module 445A to communicate, via one or more networkprotocols, with the network module 525M in order to authenticate thecommunications between the storage manager 402A and the storage manager520M and to retrieve portions of the database 530M.

The acquisition module 535 determines what type of database the database530M is categorized under. The acquisition module 535 may receive typeinformation for the database 530M from the user, via the report userinterface module 545. Alternatively, the acquisition module 535 may lookup the type of the database 530M by using Table 1 combined with the nameof the database 530M that was received from the user. In oneimplementation, the acquisition module uses network address informationreceived from the user to communicate with the database 530M and toacquire the type of the database 530M directly from the database 530M.

The acquisition module 535 queries the database 530M for content, basedon the database type of the database 530M. Because each database typeand each implementation of information management system databases havedifferent records and fields, e.g., rows and columns, query commands forvarious types and implementations of databases are programmed into theacquisition module 535. To determine the format of the database 530M,the manufacturer of the report agent 510 may reverse-engineer thedatabase 530M (and 530A). For example, the manufacturer of the reportagent 510 may purchase licenses to the information management softwarethat generates the database 530M and install the information managementsoftware on a test computing device. The manufacturer of the reportagent 510 may then perform test runs of the information managementsoftware to generate a test copy of the database 530M. From the testcopy of the database 530M, the manufacturer of the report agent 510 maycreate a data structure that includes the formats of the data structuresused in the storage manager databases by various vendors. Table 2, shownbelow, illustrates a data structure that includes example formats ofdata structures that may be used in the storage manager databasesgenerated from various vendor information management software.

TABLE 2 Manufacturer Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 . . . Column NSymantec ™ Res. ID Res. Type Net. Addr. . . . Storage Cap. EMC² ® Res.ID Storage Pol. Res. . . . Encrypt. Priority Type IBM ® IMC ID MountPath Res. ID . . . Time Stamp . . . . . .The columns in Table 2 include manufacturer, column 1, column 2, column3, and may include many more columns, up to a column N. In a first rowof Table 2, a first manufacturer of information management software islisted as Symantec™. According to Table 2, the format of the datastructure used in the system content file of information managementsoftware by Symantec™ includes a resource ID, followed by a resourcetype, a network address, additional columns, and a storage capacity ofthe identified resource. The format of the data structure used in thesystem content file of information management software by EMC²® mayinclude a resource ID, followed by the type of storage policy, followedby the priority of the resource, and may end with a column for the typeof encryption used for secondary copies of data from the identifiedresource. The format of the data structure used in the system contentfile of information management software by IBM® may include aninformation management cell (IMC) ID, a mount path for a resource, aresource ID, and a time stamp. While Table 2 provides examples of just afew manufacturers of information management software, and some columns,the list is not exhaustive.

The acquisition module 535 translates query results from the database530M to be compatible with the respective content of the database 465A.in other words, the acquisition module 535 normalizes the query resultsfrom the database 530M to a common format. For example, the acquisitionmodule 535 may query both databases for a field, i.e. column, titled JobID. The query for the database 465A may return a table of fields of JobID. By contrast, the equivalent query to the database 530M may return atable of objects from which Job ID may be extracted. The acquisitionmodule 535 may execute a loop to read the Job ID, or other data, fromeach of the objects returned by the query of the database 530M so thatthe results from both queries can be joined or merged. Thus, theacquisition module 535 acquires and prepares database content forinsertion into the interim database 540.

The interim database 540 receives content from the databases 465A and530M to facilitate temporary storage and manipulation of the receivedcontent. The interim database 540 may be implemented with afast-response architecture, such as an in-memory database. An in-memorydatabase (IMDB; also main memory database or MMDB) is a database thatprimarily resides in main memory, and is typically only backed-up bynon-volatile computer data storage. Main memory databases are fasterthan disk databases. Accessing data in memory reduces the I/O readingactivity when, for example, querying the data. The interim database 540stores and sorts the merged content from the databases 465A and 530M inpreparation for graphical representation via the report user interfacemodule 545.

The report user interface module 545 generates graphical reports inresponse to selections by a user and based on the content of the interimdatabase 540. The report user interface module 545 uses the mergedcontent stored by the interim database 540 to generate graphical reportsthat represent database content for multiple, and possiblyheterogeneous, information management cells. In some implementations,the report user interface module 545 generates reports that arerepresentative of all storage manager databases within the computingenvironment 500. The report user interface module 545 may generategraphical reports such as bar graphs and pie charts and may display thegraphical reports with a graphical user interface. Examples of agraphical user interface and corresponding graphs and charts areillustrated in FIGS. 7-16 and will be discussed in more detail below.

The report user interface module 545 generates the graphical reports inresponse to selections by the user. For example, the report userinterface module 545 may use a graphical user interface to display listboxes, drop-down menus, browse menus, radio buttons, and check boxes toenable the user to select from columns, or fields, of various databasesand database tables. In response to the selections made by the user, thereport user interface module 545 may sort or selectively extract contentfrom the interim database 540. In some implementations, in response tothe selections made by the user, the report user interface module 545may provide query information to the acquisition module 535 to cause theacquisition module 535 to retrieve user-selected content from thedatabases 465A, 530M, and/or other storage manager databases.

By executing the report agent 510, any one or more of the informationmanagement cells 350 and 505 may acquire, normalize, and graphicallyrepresent content from other information management cells regardless ofthe homogeneity of the respective storage manager databases. In someimplementations, the report agent 510 includes a number of softwaremodules. However, in other implementations, the report agent 510 is asingle non-modularized piece of software. As discussed above, theadvantages of the report agent 510 include enabling an organization tocreate at-a-glance representations of the status of the computingenvironment 500. In other words, the reporting agent 510 enables theorganization to graphically review content relating to all informationmanagement cells and all storage manager databases in the computingenvironment without regard to the types of database management systemsthat are in use by the storage managers.

The database report generation agent 510 may be stored on any one of anumber of non-transitory computer-readable media, including CD, DVD, USBdrive, floppy disk, portable non-volatile memory, magnetic disk, and thelike. The database report generation agent 510 may also be transmittedto an information management cell, for execution, via wired or wirelesssignal. The database report generation agent 510 includes instructionswhich may cause a computing device to perform a method of generatingreports for heterogeneous information management cells or heterogeneousstorage manager databases.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method 600 of using a database report generationagent to generate reports for heterogeneous information management cellsor heterogeneous storage manager databases. As discussed above,advantages of the database report generation agent include enabling anorganization to review the status and/or needs of an entire computingsystem, rather than being limited to receiving separate reports for eachtype of storage manager database.

At block 605, a storage manager receives input from a user indicatingone or more storage manager databases to query and indicate whichportions of the database contents to retrieve. As discussed above, thestorage manager may execute a report user interface module to receivevarious inputs from the user via user interface objects, such as textboxes, drop-down menus, browse menus, checkboxes, and the like. Throughthe report user interface module, the storage manager may receive queryinformation from the user, such as: which databases to query, the typesof the database, the names of the databases, the network addresses ofthe databases, and/or which fields and reports, e.g. columns and rows,of the database tables to query.

At block 610, the storage manager of one information management cellqueries one or more storage manager databases of other informationmanagement cells for content. The storage manager queries the otherstorage manager databases for content based on the selections or otherinput received from the user. The storage manager may use proprietary ornonproprietary network communication techniques, such as TCP/IP, or thelike, to communicate with the other storage manager databases. Prior tocompleting the query, the storage manager may have to determine the typeof the databases of the other storage managers. The storage manager mayuse a lookup table to determine the type of the other databases andthereby cater the query commands to the type of databases being queried.In some implementations, the storage manager uses an acquisition moduleof the database report generation agent to perform the queries.

At block 615, the storage manager normalizes the query results to acommon format. Because different types of databases return informationin different formats, e.g., data elements versus data objects, thestorage manager may use the acquisition module to convert the content ofall queried information into, for example, the format of a relationaldatabase. By normalizing the content, the storage manager prepares thecontent for merging and sorting by an interim database.

At block 620, the storage manager merges the query results into aninterim database. The interim database may be an in-memory database thatexecutes in main memory of a computing device, such as the storagemanager. The interim database enables the storage manager to sort orotherwise organize the results of the database queries.

At block 625, the storage manager graphically represents the retrieveddatabase content. The storage manager may use the report user interfacemodule to enable the user to the select a preferred graphical format forthe content received from the storage manager database query. As will beshown below, the report user interface module may graphically render thequeried information into a data table, a bar graph, a pie chart, or thelike.

While the operations of database content acquisition, normalizing andgraphing are disclosed as being performed by the storage manager, othercomputing devices within an information management cell may perform thedisclosed operations of the method 600. In one implementation, a mediaagent or a client computing device executes the method 600. In otherimplementations computing devices that are external to any of theinformation management cells of an organization can perform the method600 to produce the graphical representations based on heterogeneousdatabases or information management cells.

FIG. 7 illustrates a report generation graphical user interface (GUI)700 that might be generated by the report user interface module 545(shown in FIG. 5) to enable a user to create custom reports usingcontent from heterogeneous databases. The report generation GUI 700 mayinclude an edit report button 705, a display report button 710, and anadd external database button 715. One advantage of enabling the user touse a GUI to generate reports from databases is that a person without aprogramming background or any programming experience can generate chartsthat can represent the health, security, or status of one or morenetworks or information management cells.

The edit report button 705 enables a user to select from numerouscategories and fields within tables of databases, such as storagemanager databases. In response to selection of the edit report button705 by a user, the report generation GUI 700 may open a new window orchange the display of the report generation GUI 700 in order to renderadditional options and controls.

The display report button 710 enables a user to select from numeroustypes of displays and enables the user to select one or more fieldswithin tables of databases to graphically display. Similar to the editreport button 705, the display report button 710 may cause the reportgeneration GUI 700 to open a new window or change views on the reportgeneration GUI 700 in order to display additional options and controls.In one implementation, in response to selection of the display reportbutton 710 by the user, the report generation GUI 700 opens one or moreof the reports page 1300 of FIG. 13 and the dashboard 1500 of FIG. 15.Each of the reports page 1300 and the dashboard 1500 are discussed indetail below.

The add external database button 715 enables the report generation GUI700 to include storage manage databases that are external to aninformation management cell of the computing device that is executingthe report generation GUI 700. Notably, the add external database buttonenables the incorporation of database content from relativelyheterogeneous databases. The storage manager, media agents, clientcomputing devices, or other computing devices may execute the reportgeneration GUI 700. These computing devices may also execute thedatabase report generation agent 510 (shown in FIG. 5) to generatecustom reports based on heterogeneous storage manager databases.

In response to selection, by the user, of the add external databasebutton 715, the report generation GUI 700 opens a dialog box 720 toenable the user to enter information for connecting to an externaldatabase. The dialog box 720 may be named ‘External Database Connector.’The dialog box 720 may include a drop-down menu 725 to enable a user toselect from one of various types or vendors of databases. The drop-downmenu 725 may include database types such as Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL,CommServer, MongoDB, and others. In some implementations, the drop-downmenu 725 enables a user to select ‘database not listed here’ to allowthe user to browse additional names of databases. The dialog box 720includes a text box 730 to enable the user to enter a network address ofa host of the external database. The dialog box 720 includes a text box735 to enable the user to enter a port number, such as 1633, of theexternal database. The dialog box 720 includes a text box 740 to enablethe user to enter a name of the external database. The dialog box 720includes a text boxes 745 and 750 to enable the user to enter securitycredentials such as a username and password. The button 755 enables theuser to save the external database settings and connects to the externaldatabase identified by the entries made in the dialog box 720.

FIG. 8 illustrates an edit report GUI 800 that the report generation GUI700 opens, in response to a user clicking or selecting the edit reportbutton 705. The GUI 800 enables the user to determine which informationwill be generated in the graphical report. The GUI 800 includes severalinput menus, such as a select report menu 805, a description box 810, ainformation management cell menu 815, and aggregate option 820, adatabase menu 825, a table menu 830, and a script text box 835. The GUI800 also includes several output control objects such as view databutton 840, bar chart button 845, pie chart button 850, and save buttons855.

The input menus enable the user to easily define the features to beincluded in a report. The select report menu 805 enables the user toselect from one of multiple predetermined reports. The predeterminedreports, such as “Total Clients by Cells (QNet)”, may be created usingthe GUI 800 and by selecting one of the save buttons 855. The selectreport menu 805 may include predetermined reports such as: “TotalClients by Cells (QNet)”, “Current Media Size Per Copy”, “Job Status ByAgent Types”, “SubClient Count By SLA Reason”, “Total App Size ByClientGroup”, “Data Growth Per Library”, “Largest 10 Clients By App SizeIn Last 7 Days”, and “Top 5 Errors In Last 24 Hours” (as shown in FIG.12) (where some of these reports may be specific to resources managed bydata storage management products manufactured by CommVault of Oceanport,N.J.). While these reports may be predetermined, a user may create andname other reports as he or she wishes.

The remaining input menus enable the user to create a new report. Thedescription box 810 enables a user to create a name for a new report. Inone implementation, an information management cell is called a CommCell.The information management cell menu 815 enables the user to select oneor more information management cells to be queried during reportgeneration or creation. The aggregate option 820 enables a user toselect multiple information management cells from the CommCell menu 815while the check box is selected. Otherwise, the CommCell menu 815 willcreate the graphical report using information from just one informationmanagement cell. The database menu 825 enables the user to select fromone of multiple databases that exists within the information managementcell. Previously, reference was made to a storage manager database. Inone implementation, a storage manager is called a CommSery database, anda storage manager database is one of multiple databases that may beselected with the database menu 825. The database menu 825 enables theuser to also select other databases that may organize or manage data ormetadata within an information management cell, such as a QNet databaseor an SRM database.

The table menu 830 allows the user to select between using a ‘table’option or a ‘view’ option to generate the graphical report. The GUI 800illustrates the ‘table’ option as selected, but the GUI 1100 of FIG. 11shows the ‘view’ option being selected. The ‘view’ option is discussedin more detail below, in connection with FIG. 11. The ‘table’ option mayindicate particular tables in the database, whereas the ‘view’ optionindicates a group of tables in the database. Additional options for thetable menu 830 will be described with respect to FIG. 9.

The script text box 835 is an input that enables a user to manuallyenter database commands or subroutines, such as SQL queries. The exampledatabase commands illustrated in the script text box 835 are executedwhen at least one of the view data button 840, the bar chart button 845,or the pie chart button 850 is selected. The example database commandsthat are illustrated include instances of the ‘LEFT OUTER JOIN’ command.The ‘LEFT OUTER JOIN’ command is used to join or merge portions ofmultiple tables, e.g., CHClient and CHIDA. The script text box 835offers the advantage of enabling SQL-savvy programmers to furthercustomize the reports.

As discussed above, the GUI 800 also includes various output controls,such as the view data button 840, the bar chart button 845, the piechart button 850, and the save buttons 855. In response to the userselecting one or more of the view data button 840, the bar chart button845, and the pie chart button 850, the GUI 800 generates correspondinggraphical reports, which will be illustrated in later figures. In someimplementations the display report button 710 of FIG. 7 includes thefunctionality of one or more of the view data button 840, the bar chartbutton 845, and the pie chart button 850.

In summary, the edit report GUI 800 enables the user to either select apredetermined or previously saved report to execute. The edit report GUI800 also enables a user to name and define new reports which may beexecuted with the user-friendly view data button 840, bar chart button845, and pie chart button 850.

FIG. 9 illustrates the GUI 800 with the table menu 830 expanded to showexamples of tables that are included in a storage manager database thatthe user can select for addition to the graphical report. In theillustrated example, the user selects an information management cellnamed ‘devsrv’ and selects the storage manager database named‘CommServ’. The table menu 830, therefore, illustrates example tablesthat are included in the storage manager database, CommServ. Exampletables include APP_AppCompat, which indicates the compatibility ofapplications; APP_Application, which lists applications within theinformation management cell; and APP_BackupSetName, which lists names ofbackup sets. In some implementations, after a table is selected, anotherdrop-down menu will appear to enable the user to select one or morecolumns from the selected table for display via the graphical report.

FIG. 10 illustrates the GUI 800 after the user has selected the viewdata button 840 for a selected report named “Data growth per Library”.The GUI 800 displays a data table 1005. The data table 1005 includesfive columns: COMMCELL, LIBRARY, GROWTHRATE_GBDAY, FREESPACE_GB, ANDESTDAYSTOUSE. These columns may have been defined when the “Data growthper Library” report was created, and they may provide estimates of howmany gigabytes of memory remain before secondary storage resources aredepleted. The data table 1005 also includes options to export thedisplayed data to an Excel worksheet, to adjust the settings of thecolumns, and to add the data table to a dashboard. The dashboard is acustomized report interface where user-defined reports may be saved ontoa user interface for constant monitoring or for fast recall. An exampledashboard is illustrated in FIG. 16 and discussed below.

FIG. 11 illustrates a GUI 1100 that enables a user to create reportsbased on a ‘view’ option rather than a ‘table’ option with table menu830. The GUI 1100 is otherwise similar to GUI 800. The ‘table’ optionselects one table from the database selected from database menu 825. Bycontrast, the ‘view’ option provides a selection of a group of tables.The table menu 830 illustrates a selection of the CommCellBackupInfoview. The CommCellBackupInfo view may, for example, be a combination ofthe APP_BackupSetFilterFile table, the APP_BackupSetName table, theAPP_AppToDataPath table, and the APP_BackupSetProp table (all shown inFIG. 9). Other views may also be selected.

The menu box 1105 enables the user to select columns from theCommCellBackupInfo view. The menu box 1105 may also enable the selectionof tables, rows, or other portions of the CommCellBackupInfo view.

The GUI 1100 populates menus 1110 and 1115 with column select andaggregate select options, in response to determining that the menu 1105is set to ‘Select Columns’. The select columns menu 1110 determineswhich content will be displayed as an x-axis in a bar graph. The selectaggregates menu 1115 determines which variables or content will be usedto itemize the quantity of the y-axis of the bar chart. The menu 1120determines the y-axis quantity for each x-axis column or bar. The menu1120 may include count, average, maximum, minimum, and sum. An exampleof a graphical report that clearly illustrates the aggregationtechniques that are enabled by the GUI 1100 is shown in FIG. 12.

FIG. 12 illustrates a bar graph 1200 that shows a report of job statusby agent types. To generate this report using the options from the GUI1100, the user selects iDataAgent in the columns menu 1110, selectsjobstatus in the aggregates menu 1115, and selects count from the menu1120. The selection(s) from the columns menu 1100 determines the x-axisof the bar graph, and the selection from the menu 1120 determines y-axisof the bar graph. The selections from the aggregates menu 1115 itemizethe quantity represented by the y-axis. In other words, selections fromthe aggregates menu 1115 provide a granular representation of the countfor each of the iDataAgents. FIG. 12 also illustrates a data menu 1205showing a tabular representation of the bar graph 1200. As shown, manycustomizable options are available simply by selecting one or more checkboxes and then selecting the bar chart button. Advantageously, thedisclosed charting techniques enable non-programmers to generate complexgraphs to express the health and status of the information managementsystem.

FIG. 13 illustrates a reports page 1300 that includes a list of reportsthat have been created by the user and saved. The reports page 1300 canbe configured to provide quick links to frequently used reports. Morecustom reports can be added by using the save buttons 855 (shown on FIG.8) after entering report criteria. Each of the custom reports displayedon the reports page 1300 was mentioned previously as optional reportsthat were selectable using the report menu 805 (shown on FIG. 8).

FIG. 14 illustrates an example report page 1400 that can be generatedsimply by selecting or clicking on the “Subclient Count By SLA Reason”icon of the reports page 1300. The sub client count by SLA reason reportquickly measures the overall health of the backup procedures occurringin a computing environment. The SLA is determined according to Equation1, shown below.SLA=[Number of Protected Subclients]*100/ ([Number of ProtectedSubclients]+[Number of Non-Protected Subclients]).   Equation 1.The SLA is determined by multiplying the number of protected clients by100 and dividing that quantity by the sum of the number of protected theclients and the number of non-protected sub clients. In short, SLA is ameasurement to show what percentage of the computing environment orinformation management system is being backed up.

FIG. 15 illustrates a dashboard 1500. The dashboard 1500 displays apreview of custom reports that have been added to the dashboard by theuser. Some reports may be displayed by default, but each report can bereplaced, and additional custom reports may be added. As mentionedpreviously during the discussion of FIG. 10, additional reports may beadded to the dashboard 1500 by selecting the “+Add to Dashboard” linkthat is included at the top of each data table, bar chart, and pie chartgenerated by the GUIs 700, 800, and 1100. FIG. 15 illustrates thedashboard 1500 having three custom reports. Custom report 1505 is theSubClient Count by SLA Reason report. Custom report 1510 is the Top 5Errors in Last 24 Hours custom report. Custom report 1515 is the AppSize by ClientGroup custom report. As can be seen, the dashboard 1500may be used to evaluate the backup health or information managementsystem health of an entire network of an organization rather than beinglimited to individual reports for each database type or each informationmanagement cell.

The add report button 1520 enables a user to continue adding customreports to the dashboard 1500. In response to selecting the add reportbutton 1520, the dashboard 1500 opens an add report dialog box 1600,illustrated in FIG. 16.

The add report dialog box 1600 provides some options that are similar tothe options of GUI 800 and GUI 1100. For example, the add report dialogbox 1600 includes a saved reports drop-down menu 1605, a storage managermenu 1610, a chart type menu 1615, and a title menu 1620. Additionally,the add report dialog box 1600 includes a URL text box 1625. The URLtext box 1625 enables a user to import one or more saved reports fromanother storage manager, from a virtual machine, or from a website orFTP address. The imported reports may include a predetermined list ofpreviously stored report configurations. By importing lists ofpredetermined or received reports, the add report dialog box 1600 anddashboard 1500 can enable almost any computer-literate user to generatereports about the information management system being monitored.

FIG. 17 illustrates a method 1700 of graphically representing thecontent of information management system databases, with a GUI, toprovide custom reports associated with an information management system.A computing device may increase the number of people available togenerate custom reports by presenting easy-to-use menus via the GUI.Instead of needing a person with database programming skills to generatethe custom reports, any computer-literate person becomes eligible togenerate custom and variable reports about the information managementsystem.

At block 1705, the GUI populates user interface objects with contentidentifiers from the information management system database. The contentidentifiers may include table identifiers, view identifiers (e.g.,groups of tables), and column identifiers. The GUI may populate one ormore interface objects, such as drop-down lists, combo boxes, checkboxes, and other menus with the database content identifiers. The GUImay then associate a particular graphical interface function with eachinterface object so that when the user selects a content identifier witha particular interface object, the user is programming the graphicalrepresentation of at least part of the content of the informationmanagement system database.

At block 1710, the GUI receives user input for selected ones of thecontent identifiers. As discussed above, the GUI may receive user inputfrom various interface objects, such as drop-down lists, combo boxes,and checkboxes. The GUI may display the graphical representations inresponse to a particular input from the user, such as the selection of agraph or plot button.

At block 1715, the GUI displays graphical representation of portions ofthe content of the information management system database, based on theselected ones of the content identifiers and based on the interfaceobject used to identify the selected ones of the content identifiers.For example, the GUI may associate a column menu with an x-axis of agraph or chart, so that when a user selects a content identifier, suchas Job ID, the GUI associates the content identifier with the x-axis ofthe graph. Accordingly, without any special database programming skills,a user may generate custom and complex graphs that identifycharacteristics of the information management system.

CONCLUSION

Systems and modules described herein may comprise software, firmware,hardware, or any combination(s) of software, firmware, or hardwaresuitable for the purposes described herein. Software and other modulesmay reside on servers, workstations, personal computers, computerizedtablets, PDAs, smart phones, and other devices suitable for the purposesdescribed herein. Modules described herein may be executed by ageneral-purpose computer, e.g., a server computer, wireless device, orpersonal computer. Those skilled in the relevant art will appreciatethat aspects of the invention can be practiced with othercommunications, data processing, or computer system configurations,including: Internet appliances, hand-held devices (including personaldigital assistants (PDAs)), wearable computers, all manner of cellularor mobile phones, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, set-top boxes, network PCs,mini-computers, mainframe computers, and the like. Indeed, the terms“computer,” “server,” “host,” “host system,” and the like, are generallyused interchangeably herein and refer to any of the above devices andsystems, as well as any data processor. Furthermore, aspects of theinvention can be embodied in a special purpose computer or dataprocessor that is specifically programmed, configured, or constructed toperform one or more of the computer-executable instructions explained indetail herein.

Software and other modules may be accessible via local memory, anetwork, a browser, or other application in an ASP context, or viaanother means suitable for the purposes described herein. Examples ofthe technology can also be practiced in distributed computingenvironments where tasks or modules are performed by remote processingdevices, which are linked through a communications network, such as aLocal Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), or the Internet. In adistributed computing environment, program modules may be located inboth local and remote memory storage devices. Data structures describedherein may comprise computer files, variables, programming arrays,programming structures, or any electronic information storage schemes ormethods, or any combinations thereof, suitable for the purposesdescribed herein. User interface elements described herein may compriseelements from graphical user interfaces, command line interfaces, andother interfaces suitable for the purposes described herein.

Examples of the technology may be stored or distributed oncomputer-readable media, including magnetically or optically readablecomputer disks, hard-wired or preprogrammed chips (e.g., EEPROMsemiconductor chips), nanotechnology memory, biological memory, or otherdata storage media. Indeed, computer-implemented instructions, datastructures, screen displays, and other data under aspects of theinvention may be distributed over the Internet or over other networks(including wireless networks), on a propagated signal on a propagationmedium (e.g., an electromagnetic wave(s), a sound wave, etc.) over aperiod of time, or they may be provided on any analog or digital network(packet switched, circuit switched, or other scheme).

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of“including, but not limited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,”“coupled,” or any variant thereof, means any connection or coupling,either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; the coupling orconnection between the elements can be physical, logical, or acombination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,”and words of similar import, when used in this application, refer tothis application as a whole and not to any particular portions of thisapplication. Where the context permits, words in the above DetailedDescription using the singular or plural number may also include theplural or singular number respectively. The word “or,” in reference to alist of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretationsof the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list,and any combination of the items in the list.

The above Detailed Description is not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the invention to the precise form disclosed above. While specificexamples for the invention are described above for illustrativepurposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scopeof the invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize.For example, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order,alternative implementations may perform routines having steps, or employsystems having blocks, in a different order, and some processes orblocks may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/ormodified to provide alternative or subcombinations. Each of theseprocesses or blocks may be implemented in a variety of different ways.Also, while processes or blocks are at times shown as being performed inseries, these processes or blocks may instead be performed orimplemented in parallel, or may be performed at different times. Furtherany specific numbers noted herein are only examples: alternativeimplementations may employ differing values or ranges.

The teachings of the invention provided herein can be applied to othersystems, not necessarily the systems described herein. The elements andacts of the various examples described above can be combined to providefurther implementations of the invention.

Any patents and applications and other references noted above, includingany that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporatedherein by reference. Aspects of the invention can be modified, ifnecessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the variousreferences described above to provide yet further implementations of theinvention.

These and other changes can be made to the invention in light of theabove Detailed Description. While the above description describescertain examples of the invention and describes the best modecontemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, theinvention can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may varyconsiderably in its specific implementation, while still beingencompassed by the invention disclosed herein. As noted above,particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspectsof the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology isbeing redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features, or aspects of the invention with which that terminology isassociated. In general, the terms used in the following claims shouldnot be construed to limit the invention to the specific examplesdisclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Descriptionsection explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope ofthe invention encompasses not only the disclosed examples, but also allequivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention under theclaims.

While certain examples are presented below in certain forms, theapplicant contemplates the various aspects of the invention in anynumber of claim forms. Accordingly, the applicant reserves the right toadd additional claims after filing the application to pursue suchadditional claim forms for other aspects of the invention.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An information management system configuredto create graphical reports associated with a status of the informationmanagement system, the system comprising: a first information managementcell having a first storage manager coupled, via a first network, to afirst plurality of computing devices, wherein the first storage managerincludes a first storage manager database to store a first data storagepolicy associated with the first plurality of computing devices, whereinthe first data storage policy includes rules that determine a frequencyby which the first storage manager causes data that is stored by thefirst plurality of computing devices to be backed up by a secondarystorage device, wherein the first storage manager database is a firsttype of database; and a second information management cell connected tothe first information management cell and having a second storagemanager coupled, via a second, network to a second plurality ofcomputing devices, wherein the second storage manager includes a secondstorage manager database to store a second data storage policyassociated with the second plurality of computing devices, wherein thesecond storage manager database is a second type of database that isdifferent from the first type of database, wherein the second storagemanager includes a memory storing instructions, wherein the secondstorage manager includes a processor coupled to the memory, wherein theinstructions are executable by the processor to cause the second storagemanager to: receive an input from a user to query the first storagemanager database and the second storage manager database, identify thefirst storage manager database as the first type of database and thesecond storage manager database as the second type of database, querythe first storage manager database using a first set of query commands,identify a data format of the information received in response to thefirst set of query commands as a first data format, query the secondstorage manager database using a second set of query commands, identifya data format of the information received in response to the second setof query commands as a second data format,  wherein the first set ofquery commands are different from the second set of query commands andthe first set of query commands are based on identifying the firststorage manager database as the first type of database, normalizeinformation received in response to the query of the first storagemanager database to be compatible with the second data format, merge andsort the normalized results and information received in response of thequery of the second storage manager into an interim database associatedwith a report generation agent that generates the displayed reports, wherein the merged results represent database content for heterogeneousinformation management cells, display a graphical report of theinformation in the interim database, based on the input received fromthe user; populate a user interface with a list of content identifiersfor views, tables, or columns of the first storage manager database andof the second storage manager database, wherein the instructions tocause the second storage manager to receive the input from the userincludes instructions to cause the second storage manager to receiveuser selections of some of the list of content identifiers with the userinterface, wherein the user interface includes with table names andcolumn or row names from the common database format, and wherein theinterface is configured to permit the user to select sets of informationdisplayed via the user interface, and to query the first and secondstorage manager databases without requiring the user to be able toprogram in a database language.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein thefirst type of database is one of: a document-oriented database, adistributed database, and an object-relational database, wherein theinstructions further cause the second storage manager to receive anon-table object in response to using first set of query commands on thefirst type of database, wherein the instructions to cause the secondstorage manager to normalize the received information includesconverting the non-table object received from the first storage managerdatabase into a database table.
 3. The system of claim 1 wherein theinstructions to cause the second storage manager to receive the inputincludes instructions to cause the second storage manager to receive anetwork address of the first storage manager database, wherein theinstructions to cause the second storage manager to identify the firststorage manager as the first type includes instructions to cause thesecond storage manager to query the first storage manager database todetermine the type of the first storage manager database by using thenetwork address of the first storage manager database received from theuser.
 4. The system of claim 1 wherein the instructions to cause thesecond storage manager to identify the first storage manager as thefirst type includes instructions to cause the second storage manager toquery the first storage manager database to determine the type of thefirst storage manager database by using a look-up table.
 5. The systemof claim 1 wherein the graphical report includes at least one of a datatable, a bar graph, and a pie chart, wherein the database managementsystem models include at least three of flat models, hierarchicalmodels, network models, relational models, dimensional models,object-relational models, document models, and object models.
 6. Thesystem of claim 1, further comprising: associating a graphing functionwith the user interface so that the at least one selection from the listof content identifiers is associated with the graphing function, whereindisplaying the graphical report includes using the graphing function todisplay the at least one selection from the list of content identifiers.7. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes at leastone of a drop-down menu, a combo box, a list of check boxes, and a listof radio buttons to enable interaction with the user interface withouttyping database commands.
 8. A method for displaying graphical reportsof a status of an information management system, wherein the informationmanagement system includes a first information management subnetworkhaving a first plurality of computing devices and a second informationmanagement subnetwork having a second plurality of computing devices,the method comprising: populating, with a computing device, a graphicaluser interface object with a list of content identifiers forheterogeneous information management system databases, wherein theheterogeneous information management system databases include: a firstinformation management database of a first database management systemmodel, wherein the first information management database includes dataassociated with the first plurality of computing devices, wherein thedata in the first information management database is in a first dataformat, and a second information management database of a seconddatabase management system model, wherein the second informationmanagement database includes data associated with the second pluralityof computing devices, wherein the data in the second informationmanagement database is in a second data format, wherein the firstdatabase management system model and the second database managementsystem model are different from one another; receiving input from a uservia the graphical user interface, wherein the input includes at leastone selection of a content identifier from the list of contentidentifiers, wherein the graphical user interface provides multiplepredetermined reports, wherein the predetermined reports include a topbackup errors within a predetermined time period or data growth per datastorage library, and wherein the graphical user interface is configuredto permit the user to perform the selection without requiring the userto be able to program in a database language; determining databasemanagement system models for the heterogeneous information managementsystem databases; querying the heterogeneous information managementsystem databases based on the at least one selection from the list ofcontent identifiers and based on the database management system modelsof the heterogeneous information management system databases;normalizing results from the query, wherein normalizing results from thequery includes converting a portion of the results attributable to thefirst information management database in the first data format to thesecond data format, wherein the normalized results represent databasecontent for heterogeneous information management system databases; anddisplaying graphical reports of the normalized results, based on the atleast one selection from the list of content identifiers that wasselected by the user, so that the method provides a bridge betweendifferent database types to generate and display reports containing datafrom both the first and second information management databases.
 9. Themethod of claim 8 wherein the content identifiers include one or more ofviews, tables, and columns of the heterogeneous information managementsystem databases.
 10. The method of claim 8 wherein the graphicalreports includes at least one of a data table, a bar graph, and a piechart, wherein the database management system models include at leastthree of flat models, hierarchical models, network models, relationalmodels, dimensional models, object-relational models, document models,and object models.
 11. The method of claim 8, further comprisingreceiving a network address or network identifier from the user for atleast one of the heterogeneous information management system databases,wherein determining the database management system models for theheterogeneous information management system databases includes using thenetwork address or the network identifier to request the databasemanagement system models directly from the heterogeneous informationmanagement system databases over a network.
 12. The method of claim 8,further comprising: associating a graphing function with the userinterface so that the at least one selection from the list of contentidentifiers is associated with the graphing function, wherein displayingthe graphical reports includes using the graphing function to displaythe at least one selection from the list of content identifiers.
 13. Themethod of claim 8 wherein the graphical user interface includes at leastone of a drop-down menu, a combo box, a list of check boxes, and a listof radio buttons to enable interaction with the graphical user interfacewithout typing database commands.
 14. The method of claim 8, furthercomprising: merging the normalized results from the query by enteringthe normalized results into an interim database associated with a reportgeneration agent that generates the displayed reports, wherein theinterim database is an in-memory database that operates in main memoryof the computing device; and sorting the results with the interimdatabase prior to displaying the graphical results.
 15. At least onenon-transitory tangible computer-readable medium storing instructionswhich, when executed by at least one data processing device, performs amethod for displaying graphical reports of a status of an informationmanagement system, wherein the information management system includes afirst information management subnetwork having a first plurality ofcomputing devices and a second information management subnetwork havinga second plurality of computing devices, the method comprising:populating, with a computing device, a graphical user interface objectwith a list of content identifiers for heterogeneous informationmanagement system databases, wherein the heterogeneous informationmanagement system databases include: a first information managementdatabase of a first database management system model, wherein the firstinformation management database includes data associated with the firstplurality of computing devices, wherein the data in the firstinformation management database is in a first data format, and a secondinformation management database of a second database management systemmodel, wherein the second information management database includes dataassociated with the second plurality of computing devices, wherein thedata in the second information management database is in a second dataformat, wherein the first database management system model and thesecond database management system model are different from one another;receiving input from a user via the graphical user interface , whereinthe input includes at least one selection of a content identifier fromthe list of content identifiers, wherein the graphical user interfaceprovides multiple predetermined reports, wherein the predeterminedreports include a top backup errors within a predetermined time periodor data growth per data storage library, and wherein the graphical userinterface is configured to permit the user to perform the selectionwithout requiring the user to be able to program in a database language;determining database management system models for the heterogeneousinformation management system databases; querying the heterogeneousinformation management system databases based on the at least oneselection from the list of content identifiers and based on the databasemanagement system models of the heterogeneous information managementsystem databases; normalizing results from the query, whereinnormalizing results from the query includes converting a portion of theresults attributable to the first information management database in thefirst data format to the second data format, wherein the normalizedresults represent database content for heterogeneous informationmanagement system databases; and displaying graphical reports of thenormalized results, based on the at least one selection from the list ofcontent identifiers that was selected by the user, so that the methodprovides a bridge between different database types to generate anddisplay reports containing data from both the first and secondinformation management databases.
 16. The at least one non-transitorytangible computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein the contentidentifiers include one or more of views, tables, and columns of theheterogeneous information management system databases.
 17. The at leastone non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15 whereinthe graphical reports includes at least one of a data table, a bargraph, and a pie chart, wherein the database management system modelsinclude at least three of flat models, hierarchical models, networkmodels, relational models, dimensional models, object-relational models,document models, and object models.
 18. The at least one non-transitorytangible computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprisingreceiving a network address or network identifier from the user for atleast one of the heterogeneous information management system databases,wherein determining the database management system models for theheterogeneous information management system databases includes using thenetwork address or the network identifier to request the databasemanagement system models directly from the heterogeneous informationmanagement system databases over a network.
 19. The at least onenon-transitory tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15, furthercomprising: associating a graphing function with the user interface sothat the at least one selection from the list of content identifiers isassociated with the graphing function, wherein displaying the graphicalreports includes using the graphing function to display the at least oneselection from the list of content identifiers.